• "corporations, along with their CEOs, are seizing a bigger piece of the nation’s economic pie
for themselves, leaving the nation’s workers and their families diminished" Steven Greenhouse, The Big Squeeze

• In 2009, the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of a union was12.3 percent (see below for reference)


• “Pension plans are kind of a thing of the past.” Hewlett-Packard Company spokesman

What will happen to the American worker if unions disappear?
Who are the excluded workers?
**List of excluded workers from the United Workers' Congress**
Should union members start thinking of international partnerships?
Should unions start rethinking how they will survive in a country that distrusts them?
What can workers do in the face of declining unions?

Read this article from the Atlantic Monthly for a background of the current crisis for workers in America today

Why Workers Won’t Unite/ The Atlantic Monthly - April 15, 2015

Globalization and technology have gutted the labor movement, and part-time work is sabotaging solidarity. Is there a new way to challenge the politics of inequality?

Harry van Arsdale

“Without a union, a worker has no chance.”
What did van Arsdale mean by that statement? is it still true?
Who was he? What did he do?
Why is he still so respected by union members?

What were some of the union organizing campaigns he worked on?

(electrical workers, taxi drivers, subway workers, etc)

How are those unions doing now?

Define some of the issues that van Arsdale worked on during his career.

Job security
Retirement plan
Health insurance
Protection against arbitrary firings and lay-offs, exploitation, outsourcing
education opportunities
Minimum wage

Try looking up the following phrases in google and see what you find.

"union avoidance industry"
"Living Wage Mandate"
"Right to Work" state
"excluded workers"

Is Harry van Arsdale's legacy still relevant in the 21st century?

Your job is to write a 3 pg essay using what you know about van Arsdale, today's economy and the labor movement to explain why or why not Harry van Arsdale is still relevant in the 21st Century.

___

Below you will find a number of links that should answer all the questions posed above.

Links for Harry van Arsdale

http://www.harryvanarsdalejr.org/
http://www.harryvanarsdale.com/
http://www.ibew-ewmc.com/HVA.htm

Jobs Crisis takes it toll on union membership
http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/01/22/job-crisis-takes-toll-on-union-membership/

excerpt from **The Big Squeeze**
by Steven Greenhouse, writer and former NY Times Labor reporter
___

Why is there such a strong push to destroy unions in the U.S.

Union Avoidance or Union busting??? What do you call it?

BNET – articles on union avoidance - how to avoid unions organizing in your company.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1153/is_v109/ai_4189213/

An angry company owner who wrote a book called The Devil At My Doorstep about his fight with SEIU, a union trying to organize his workers http://www.thedevilatmydoorstep.com/

Union Facts from an employers's point of view
http://www.unionfacts.com/

the Ugly Face of Union Busting AFL-CIO Blog
http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/04/23/the-ugly-face-of-union-busting/

Bust the Union Busters
http://www.fpdunion.org/page23.html
__

In 2009, the union membership rate--the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of a union--was 12.3 percent
from Bureau of Labor Statistics http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm



What is Wage theft?
http://www.iwj.org/template/page.cfm?id=30
Can My Boss Do That?
http://www.canmybossdothat.com/
http://www.canmybossdothat.com/category.php?id=71

Living Wage Calculator
http://www.livingwage.geog.psu.edu/counties/36061

Should there be a living wage?
http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2002-07-22-wage-movement_x.htm

Wall Street's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
http://newstrust.net/stories/1840172/toolbar?ref=nlw&utm_campaign=weekly_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=20100526_listing

the Labor Movement - "the folks who brought you the weekend"